Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Loving your Muslim Neighbours

Over at CT, Jason Hood has written a stimulating article on what it means to love our Muslim Neighbors in Muslims in Evangelical Churches. Would you allow Muslims to use your church as a worship sanctuary while their mosque is being repaired?

4 comments:

John Thomson said...

I would like to read reflections on this question. I do not view a church building as 'sacred space' yet I would be most reluctant for it to be used for a purpose I disapprove. I disapprove of all other religions; they are idolatrous.

I disapprove of many other activities too (pornography, same-sex marriages, wild parties, hate-rallies, casinos etc). I would not wish my church building to be used for activities that dishonour God.

On the other hand, if the church did not own the building, I would have no propblem in principle with hiring a building used by groups I disapprove. The dynamics of the situation are different. In the former, I have responsibility for what I do with property I own. In the latter, no such responsibility exists.

Maybe churches would be more flexible (and free) if they owned no buildings?

Bill Victor said...

I understand the heart of these pastors, but I would probably not allow a Mormon, Jehovah's Witness or Wiccan group to use the church's grounds for worship. I have a hard time believing that Jesus would sanction worship to anything other to his father as well. Jesus could be pretty exclusive at times (John 14.6).

MarieP said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MarieP said...

John Thomson expressed my own thoughts beautifully!

And the non-ownership of a church building is an interesting question! My church makes great use of our building- a group of us stay in between services on Sunday to fellowship (and read and take a nap!), a local Christian educational consortium has used it for classes, we use it for several book studies). I would say it would depends on how much you use the building.